There was no room for Sergio Aguero, Aymeric Laporte and Aleks Zinchenko in the Manchester City squad to face Burnley as more players returned from injury.
Pep Guardiola had warned that there will be more competition for places now that he has more options available and proved his point with the selection of John Stones to partner Ruben Dias for the second successive game.
There was no place for Laporte even on the bench, with Eric Garcia the sole centre-back among the substitutes as Nathan Ake still needs time to reach full fitness.
Zinchenko returned to the squad against Olympiacos and came off the bench, yet found himself out of the 18 again for the Premier League game with Burnley.
And there was no room for Aguero as he works his way back to full fitness, with the coaches keen not to rush him back after he came back in October and injured a hamstring. Asked about the striker before the match, the manager said: "He needs to train and today he had a little disturbance on his knee."
City are looking to end a run of six consecutive league matches that has seen them fail to score more than one goal. Ferran Torres, Riyad Mahrez and Gabriel Jesus are trusted as the attacking trio, with Phil Foden dropping to the bench despite scoring the only goal of the game in midweek.
Man City starting XI vs Burnley: Ederson, Walker, Stones, Dias, Mendy, Rodri, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Torres, Mahrez, Jesus
Substitutes: Steffen, Sterling, Bernardo, Fernandinho, Cancelo, Foden, Garcia.
